Rebar for foundations and walls of a sewage pump station.

The Paulins Kill Viaduct, Hainesburg, New Jersey, is 115 feet (35 m) tall and 1,100 feet (335 m) long, and
was heralded as the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world when it was completed in 1910 as
part of the Lackawanna Cut-Off rail line project. The Lackawanna Railroad was a pioneer in the use of
reinforced concrete.

It was once common for calcium chloride to be used as an admixture to promote rapid set-up of
the concrete. It was also mistakenly believed that it would prevent freezing. However, this
practice fell into disfavor once the deleterious effects of chlorides became known. It should be
avoided whenever possible.

The use of de-icing salts on roadways, used to lower the freezing point of water, is probably one
of the primary causes of premature failure of reinforced or prestressed concrete bridge decks,
roadways, and parking garages. The use of epoxy-coated reinforcing bars and the application of
cathodic protection has mitigated this problem to some extent. Also FRP (fiber-reinforced
polymer) rebars are known to be less susceptible to chlorides. Properly designed concrete
mixtures that have been allowed to cure properly are effectively impervious to the effects of de-
icers.

Another important source of chloride ions is sea water. Sea water contains by weight
approximately 3.5 wt.% salts. These salts include sodium chloride, magnesium sulfate, calcium
sulfate, and bicarbonates. In water these salts dissociate in free ions (Na+, Mg2+, Cl−, SO42−,
HCO3−) and migrate with the water into the capillaries of the concrete. Chloride ions, which
make up about 50% of these ions, are particularly aggressive as a cause of corrosion of carbon
steel reinforcement bars.
and South Korea to Germany.